In about an hour, you can turn red onions into a zippy condiment: pickled onions. I use it on hamburgers, salads, potato salad, sandwiches, with cheese and crackers, throw it on a steamed veggie (kale, spinach). It’s an-all around great garnish. Erin’s 1:1:1 Pickles (Water, sugar, red wine vinegar) Slice 2 red onions into thin […]

What do you do if your third-grader comes home with a cabbage seedling? You make room! True confession from the mom: “Since I knew it’d get huge, I didn’t want it to take up valuable veggie garden space, so I had him plant it in a Potato Grow Bag, with organic potting soil, some home-grown […]

Squirrels seem to be a big problem this year, based on what I hear from customers at our Burlington, VT, garden center. I can substantiate these concerns with my own experience as a dabbler in raised beds and containers. The squirrels are constantly digging up bulbs, mulch, plants and vegetables. No dirt is left unturned […]

During the third week of April, I traveled to Cornelius, NC, where my daughter and family moved in early March. Longtime NYC area residents, they asked me to brighten up their yard with plants. I mailed them the most recent Gardeners Supply catalog to give them ideas. To my great surprise, my son-in-law took me […]

In the garden, it helps to know your foes. Last week, we spotted some strange “bugs” on our tomato plants. Turns out that they’re larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. Because our potato crop is nearby, we wanted to take care of the problem right away. We put on gloves and scraped the larvae into […]

The last time we planted sweet potatoes, the deer in the area found the tiny plants almost immediately and ate them down to the soil line. This time, we’re playing defense with some lightweight deer fence, held in place with stakes. In addition to using a fence, we’re growing the plants in the Universal Grow Bag, which […]

One of the joys of being a garden designer is that, you can conceptualize any environment and with some know-how and creativity. From there, you can translate that world into reality. Here in southern California, we have a unique set of circumstances that have left many homeowners (and designers!) baffled as to where to begin. […]

What better way to begin the New Year than with a planting (or at least dreaming about) a new garden? Maybe you’re ready to revamp an existing garden. Or, maybe it’s simple: Plant some new, colorful pots on a patio or balcony to enjoy with a morning cup of tea. Whether your project costs $50, […]